Human vision uses a variety of cues to perceive three-dimensional (3D) depth in the real world. One of these cues is retinal disparity, where the interocular distance results in the left and right eyes receiving slightly different projections of the world. Stereoscopic imagery attempts to create artificial 3D depth perception by presenting slightly different images to each eye. The two images are captured from different vantage points, set apart from each other a distance approximating the interocular distance of the human eyes. Assuming the images are properly synchronized and the vantage points approximate the interocular distance, the brain processes these images in a way that creates the illusion of depth in the image.
Conventional 3D cameras include a pair of spaced apart image sensors for generating the two views of a scene. While suitable for a front view of the scene, or some other portion of a scene, conventional 3D cameras are not able to obtain a panoramic 360° view of a scene. This is so at least because at some viewing angle around the 360° panorama, the first image sensor will capture a view of the second image sensor, and vice-versa, resulting in occlusions in the 360° view. Another option is to rotate the pair of image sensors to capture full 360° view without any camera occlusion, but this technique would not be able to properly capture dynamic scenes.